From the song 'Greatest Love of All' by Whitney Houston:

I decided long ago
Never to walk in anyone's shadow,
If I fail, if I succeed,
At least I'll live as I believe,
No matter what they take from me
They can't take away my dignity...

http://youtu.be/IYzlVDlE72w

"Never cut a tree down in the wintertime. Never make a negative decision in the low time. Never make your most important decisions when you are in your worst moods. Wait. Be patient. The storm will pass. The spring will come."
- Robert H. Schuller

https://m.flickr.com/#/photos/lessonsproject/16829345213/

Are you stressed, rushed and aggravated?

Stress Changes How People Make Decisions
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/02/120228114308.htm

"Someone once said anyone can be great under rosy circumstances, but the true test of character is measured by how well a person makes decisions during difficult times."
- Jack Gantos, Hole in My Life

"The only good thing about having your back to the wall is that it makes it really easy to choose which way you're going to go."
Jim Butcher, Cold Days

"Circumstances don't determine who you are, or what you will be. Only you do that. You either decide, or you don't. Even the decision not to decide was still yours."
- Julie-Anne

"Whatever you decide, don't let it be because you don't think you have a choice."
- Hannah Harrington, Saving June

Circumstances can drive decisions....

From the song 'I Wanna Be With You' by Mandy Moore

I try but I can't seem to get myself to think of anything but you
Your breath on my face your warm, gentle kiss I taste the truth, I taste the truth
We know what I came here for
So I won't ask for more

I wanna be with you
If only for a night
To be the on who's in your arms to hold you tight
I wanna be with you
There's nothing more to say
There's nothing else I want more than to feel this way
I wanna be with you

https://youtu.be/ErntJrtQGBg

If you were having trouble or not making the grade, what would you decide?

Movie: Center Stage
https://youtu.be/P2XirHXS2k8

"Most of my family, friends and business network reside in the Washington DC area, so the right decision seems to be: stay in the Washington DC area where I will remain in close contact with family, friends and other connections, and will also know enough about the area and the area's activities to quickly grow my connections and build up a client base. But there are other considerations."
- FahmeenaOdetta Moore, Why I Decided to Move to Florida Though I Am Years from Retirement,
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-i-decided-move-florida-though-am-years-from-retirement-moore?trk=mp-reader-card

"Most decisions are seat-of-the-pants judgments. You can create a rationale for anything. In the end, most decisions are based on intuition and faith."
- Nathan Myhrvold in "The Microsoft Provocateur"

"There are things you do sometimes, actions that you take by obeying sudden impulses, without stopping for even a fraction of a second to think, and then you spend the rest of your life either lamenting it or thanking yourself for it. They are rare, unique, and perfect moments."
- Irene Gonzalez Frei

"I know when something is too important to be decided by logic."
- Lisa Kleypas, Mine Till Midnight

"A good decision is based on knowledge and not on numbers."
- Plato

"Don't overthink things. Sometimes you can convince your head not to listen to your heart. Those are the decisions you regret for the rest of your life."
- Leah Braemel

"For making good decisions, intuition is your best go-to."
- Karen Whitaker

How do you make decisions? Based on logic? Based on your gut or feelings? Based on something else? Do you think the young make more risky decisions?

Should the new decision be based on past decisions? Past results? Amount of time already invested (sunk costs)?

From the song 'Please Stay' by The Drifters:

Don't go, please stay
Don't go, please stay

If I got on my knees and I pleaded with you
Not to go but to stay in my arms
Would you walk out the door like you did once before?
Or would this time be different, would you stay?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NairS2nGEEw

"Part of making a good decision is just making a decision. You can't always sit and weigh
the pros and cons. There just isn't time for that. Making a good decision means sticking with
your choice and dealing with what comes with it. Being able to deal with the consequences—
that's making a good decision."
- J.X. Burros

Sometimes we fail to do the right thing or make the rational, common-sense decision, it seems like we are not making a decision.
It may just be the wrong decision. It may be "escalation of commitment to a losing course of action." This is where we continue with the current option even though there is a problem (such as waiting at the restaurant even when there is no sign that a table would be ready soon or working with a new hire that is not a good fit for the job). "Escalation occurs whenever we invest our time, energy, or resources in a choice that falls short of the desired return, and we succumb to the temptation to invest more."
- Adam Grant, How to Escape from Bad Decisions,
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20130708120501-69244073-how-to-escape-from-bad-decisions?trkInfo=VSRPsearchId%3A67333731430883981673%2CVSRPtargetId%3A21902%2CVSRPcmpt%3Aprimary&trk=vsrp_influencer_content_res_name

"Not making a decision is the worst thing you can do. So long as you feel you made the right
decision based on the information you had at that time, there's no need to fret about it.
If it fails, you'll know what to do next time."
- Bo Schembechler, Bo's Lasting Lessons: The Legendary Coach Teaches the
Timeless Fundamentals of Leadership

"When faced with two equally tough choices, most people choose the third choice: to not choose.
"
- Jarod Kintz, This Book Title is Invisible

"The man who insists upon seeing with perfect clearness before he decides, never decides. Accept life, and you must accept regret."
- Henri Frederic Amiel

"On an important decision one rarely has 100% of the information needed for a good decision no matter how much one spends or how long one waits. And, if one waits too long, he has a different problem and has to start all over. This is the terrible dilemma of the hesitant decision maker."
- Robert K. Greenleaf, Servant As Leader

"There is nothing in the world so difficult as that task of making up one's mind. Who is there that has not longed that the power and privilege of selection among alternatives should be taken away from him in some important crisis of his life, and that his conduct should be arranged for him, either this way or that, by some divine power if it were possible, - by some patriarchal power in the absence of divinity, - or by chance, even, if nothing better than chance could be found to do it? But no one dares to cast the die, and to go honestly by the hazard. There must be the actual necessity of obeying the die, before even the die can be of any use."
- Anthony Trollope, Phineas Finn

"Sometimes the hardest thing in life is to know which bridge to cross and which to burn."
- Bertrand Russell

#Songlesson....Crazy to make this decision?

From the song 'As Long As You Love Me' by Backstreet Boys:

Although loneliness has always been a friend of mine
I'm leavin' my life in your hands
People say I'm crazy and that I am blind
Risking it all in a glance
And how you got me blind is still a mystery
I can't get you out of my head
Don't care what is written in your history
As long as you're here with me

I don't care who you are
Where you're from
What you did
As long as you love me
Who you are
Where you're from
Don't care what you did
As long as you love me

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SSy5yeA5eo

How much time would you need to decide on the blue pill or the red pill? (See attached clip from The Matrix)
Do you make big decisions swiftly?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zE7PKRjrid4

#KEY......

“It's not hard to make decisions when you know what your values are.”
- Roy Disney

“All you can do is make your decisions based on what you know now.”
- Malinda Lo, Huntress

"When making a decision of minor importance, I have always found it advantageous to consider all the pros and cons. In vital matters, however, such as the choice of a mate or a profession, the decision should come from the unconscious, from somewhere within ourselves. In the important decisions of personal life, we should be governed, I think, by the deep inner needs of our nature."
- Sigmund Freud

"Before you start some work, always ask yourself three questions - Why am I doing it, What the results might be and Will I be successful. Only when you think deeply and find satisfactory answers to these questions, go ahead".
- Chanakya

“Ask yourself before making a decision; will this decision harm or help myself or others involved in the decision ”
- Kloby

"Human decision-making is complex. On our own, our tendency to yield to short-term temptations, and even to addictions, may be too strong for our rational, long-term planning."
- Peter Singer

Make decisions you would not regret later.

Jeff Bezos' Regret Minimization framework:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwG_qR6XmDQ

"There are moments that define a person's whole life. MOMENTS in which everything they are and everything they may possibly become hinge on a single decision."
- Jonathan Maberry, Rot and Ruin

"We all make choices, but in the end our choices make us."
- Ken Levine

"The reason I like the game chess is because each move has countless repercussions, but you're in charge of them. And it's your ability to see into the future and the effects of the decisions you've made that makes you either a good or not a good chess player. It's not luck."
- Bono, Bono: In Conversation with Michka Assayas

https://www.flickr.com/photos/lessonsproject/15039191385/in/set-72157646866658822

Happy Cinco de Mayo!
Thought for the day: Don't be a pawn in the game of life. Make decisions based on your needs and beliefs. Consider the consequences of your decisions. #DecisionsWeek

From the song 'I Decided' by R. Kelly:

I decided to stay home tonight,
I decided I'ma treat you right,
I decided to be there for you,
Decided to be on my P's and Q's,
I decided to give up my friends,
Decided I'ma take you out weekends,
Decided to give you a reason to trust,
These are decisions that I make for love.

Enough is enough no more running around,
(Searchin' for what's right here at home)
Because my luck is 'bout to turn around,
(And I just can't keep doin' you wrong)
Girl I take it for granted that you will be here always,
(Tired of this ego trip)
'Cause soon you'll be searchin' for another man,
And I just can't have that happen to me.

https://youtu.be/V6AzP5O0ZoE

"The better we understand the choices we have been making, either consciously or unconsciously, the more say we will have in the world we create. Neurocircuitry may be neurocircuitry, but we don't have to run on automatic."
- Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor

"Your unconscious mind is running your life!"
- http://www.lifetrainings.com/Your-unconscious-mind-is-running-you-life.html

Often, decisions are made unconsciously.....

"I had made a decision, although I hardly knew it yet. It's often that way with decisions, they're made in some hidden part of us and the awareness secretes itself slowly into that conscious part of us that imagines it decides."
- Neil Jordan, Mistaken

"If we actually thought about every decision we made, we'd be paralyzed ... You have to decide which decisions you're actually going to make, and then you have to let the rest of them go."
- David Levithan, Naomi and Ely's No Kiss List

"Who can really say how decisions are made, how emotions change, how ideas arise? We talk about inspiration; about a bolt of lightning from a clear sky, but perhaps everything is just as simple and just as infinitely complex as the processes that make a particular leaf fall at a particular moment. That point has been reached, that's all. It has to happen, and it does happen."
- John Ajvide Lindqvist, Harbor

"Many people fail in their career, business and relationship, and others get stuck because of their inability to make quality decisions."
- Nkem Mpamah, The Art of Achievement and Fulfillment: Fundamental Principles to Overcome Obstacles and Turn Dreams Into Reality!

"The course of history is determined not by battles, by sieges, or usurpation, but by the individuals. The strongest army is, at its most basic level, a collection of individuals. Their decisions, their passions, their foolishness, and their dreams shape the years to come. If there is any lesson to be learned from history, it is that all too often the fate of armies, of cities, of entire realms rests upon the actions of one person's decision, good or bad, right or wrong, big or small, can unwittingly change the world. But history can be quite the slattern. One never knows who that person is, where he might be, or what decision he might make. It is almost enough to make me believe in destiny."
- Jim Butcher, Furies of Calderon

"Life is made up of chances to make choices, decisions of what you wish to do; the accumulated result of those choices is what you call your life."
- Steven Redhead, The Solution

"Do nothing, and nothing happens. Life is about decisions. You either make them or they're made for you, but you can't avoid them."
- Mhairi McFarlane, You Had Me At Hello

Decisions are important.....

"Decisions determine the directions of your destiny."
- Bobby Sullivan

From the song 'I Decide' by Lindsay Lohan:

Don't think that you can tell me what to think,
I'm the one who knows what's good for me,
And I'm stating my independence.
Gonna take the road, I'm gonna take,
And I'm gonna make my own mistakes,
It's my life,
I decide.

I decide how I live,
I decide who I love,
Choice is mine,
And no one gets to make my mind up,
I decide.
I decide where I go,
What I need,
Who I know,
I'm the one who's running my life,
I decide,
I decide.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9cq_5p8JVoM

"To find yourself,
Think for yourself."
- Socrates

"You will find that people will always have opinions about your decisions. Don't take it personally, it’s simply because they're not courageous enough to take action in their own lives. Be a leader in your life and pay no mind to those who lack the courage to do the same in theirs."
- Steve Maraboli, Unapologetically You: Reflections on Life and the Human Experience
 

"Opinions are the cheapest commodities on earth. Everyone has a flock of opinions ready to be wished upon anyone who will accept them. If you are influenced by "opinions" when you reach DECISIONS, you will not succeed in any undertaking."
- Napoleon Hill, Think and Grow Rich

"A wise man makes his own decisions, an ignorant man follows public opinion."
- Chinese proverb

"Don't entrust your future on others' hands. Rather make decisions by yourself with the help of God's guidance. Hold your beliefs so tight and never let go of them!"
- Hark Herald Sarmiento

Lead somebody by the nose -
To control someone and make them do exactly what you want them to do.
http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/lead+by+the+nose

Do you usually make your own decisions and determine what is best for you? Do other people influence and persuade you?

Movie: Glitter
https://youtu.be/xNUkgh90eAw

Theme for the week 5/3 - 5/9: Decisions.